july 2020 grow your own teachers
TRANSCRIPT
July 2020
Grow Your Own Teachers A 50-State Scan of Policies and Programs
Amaya Garcia
Last edited on July 20, 2020 at 11:16 a.m. EDT
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to many current and former New America colleagues who provided research assistance and thought partnership: Ingrid T. Colón, Roxanne Garza, Itziri Gonzalez-Barcenas, Jenny Muñiz, Lindsay Rapkin, Elena Silva, and Melissa Tooley. A special thank you to the members of New America's GYO Advisory Group for their thought partnership and collaboration. I appreciate Sabrina Detlef for her editorial support and Julie Brosnan, Fabio Murgia, Riker Pasterkiewicz, and Joe Wilkes for their assistance with communication, data visualization, and layout. This work would not have been possible without the generous support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and McKnight Foundation. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these individuals and foundations.
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About the Author(s)
Amaya Garcia is deputy director for English Learner education in the Education Policy program at New America where she provides research and analysis on policies and programs related to bilingual teacher preparation and career pathways, bilingual education, English language proficiency and early education.
About New America
We are dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create.
About Education Policy
We use original research and policy analysis to help solve the nation’s critical education problems, crafting objective analyses and suggesting new ideas for policymakers, educators, and the public at large.
About PreK-12 Education
The PreK-12 initiative works to ensure that all children attending public elementary and secondary schools have access to and receive high-quality educational experiences, with a particular emphasis on improving equity and outcomes for traditionally underserved students.
About Grow Your Own Educators
Grow Your Own (GYO) is a teacher preparation strategy focused on developing and retaining teachers from the local community. GYO is often used to address teacher shortages and increase the diversity of the teacher workforce.
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Findings
Conclusion
Glossary
Introduction
Over the past four years, New America has been researching Grow Your Own
(GYO) programs as a strategy for growing and diversifying the teacher workforce.
GYO programs—partnerships between school districts, institutions of higher
education, and community-based organizations to recruit and prepare
community members to become teachers in local schools—are increasingly
popular as a strategy for teacher recruitment and development. We began this
work with a focus on bilingual teacher development and the need for more
bilingual teachers to support the needs of English learner students.
The need for GYO is clear. States are experiencing teacher shortages across
subject areas, such as special education and bilingual education, and regions,
particularly in rural areas. Research on GYO suggests that homegrown teachers
have higher rates of retention and that these programs remove barriers that have
kept some individuals from being able to access and persist in a teacher
preparation program. At the same time, states are making efforts to increase the
racial and linguistic diversity of the teacher workforce. Students of color make up
the majority of the K–12 student population, yet their teachers are majority white,
female, and monolingual. GYO programs often focus on recruiting and preparing
teachers of color who are invested in promoting social justice and changing the
education system from within.
While GYO is not a new approach, the majority of research has focused on
district-level programs that were not widely scaled or sustained and much of the
work on program development has been done without state policy and
investment. In 2005, Illinois became the first state to fund and implement a
competitive GYO grant program designed to forge partnerships between
community organizations and institutes of higher education that would prepare
educators from the community for the community. As researcher Elizabeth
Skinner describes, the state program was born out of a grassroots effort in
Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood to help parents and community members
become bilingual teachers in their local schools. Today seven states fund
statewide GYO programs to help local school districts recruit and prepare the
teachers they need.
From its grassroots origins, GYO has recently garnered national attention as a
strategy for strengthening and diversifying the teaching profession. GYO
educator programs have been proposed by former presidential candidates
Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, with the College Affordability ACT HEA
reauthorization bill, and in the Classrooms Reflecting Communities Act of 2019
introduced by Alabama Senator Doug Jones.
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Given the expanding interest in GYO, we set out to learn more about these
programs across the country. We conducted a 50-state scan to identify GYO
programs—including target candidates, types of programs, and their design—and
to investigate state policies that support GYO program development,
implementation, and sustainability.
We found that the landscape of GYO educator pathways mirrors that of the
broader educator pathway: highly localized with wide variability in program
design. At the same time, GYO programs share a common goal of preparing
teachers from the community for the community, and they face common
challenges in designing programs that can meet candidates where they are. This
brief will highlight our findings to help uncover the current state of GYO
programs.
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We examined programs that target high school students, paraeducators, non-
certified school staff, and community members. The analysis was limited to
programs that were geared toward local candidates (e.g., high school students,
paraeducators, non-certified school staff ) who would be teaching in their local
community. However, to be as comprehensive as possible, we captured a broad
range of programs that includes career and technical education, alternative
certification, career ladders, and those that are more limited in scope (e.g.,
scholarships, student clubs).
All 50 states plus the District of Columbia were included in the scan. In the
summer of 2018, we developed a coding framework that would allow us to gauge
the policies and programs in place to support GYO. The framework was designed
based on a review of external GYO educator literature and research, New
America’s existing research on GYO educator programs, and guidance from our
GYO advisory group. The primary coding was conducted by three individuals.
We relied on Google searches using the term “[state name] grow your own
teachers,” 50-state comparisons conducted by the Education Commission of the
States on teacher retention and recruitment policies and secondary Career and
Technical Education Clusters, state plans under the Every Student Succeeds
Act (ESSA), and a Westat analysis of state teacher equity plans. Because the
development of bilingual educators has been a key focus of New America’s GYO
research, we included a focus on GYO programs for bilingual educators and so
also used the search term “[state name] grow your own bilingual teachers” and
searched through programs funded by National Professional Development grants
under Title III of ESSA. A reliability check was conducted for 30 percent of the
states. In the spring of 2020, each state’s data were reviewed and, when
necessary, updated to include new programs or to remove programs that had
lapsed.
In addition, we partnered with FDR Group to survey state Title II (e.g., teacher
recruitment and preparation) and Title III (e.g., English learners) directors about
efforts to recruit and prepare educators through GYO programs and other efforts
to prepare and support bilingual educators. We administered the survey in the
summer of 2018 and again in the spring of 2020. The first survey garnered
responses from 42 states plus the District of Columbia and the second survey
extracted responses from 46 states plus DC. The findings of the survey were used
to supplement and confirm the information that we conducted in our
independent review of GYO policies and programs.
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A Look at the Data
Our state-level data are shown in the table below. The data feature policies and programs, with a focus on those for high school students and paraeducators, as they emerged as the two most prominent kinds of programs. We include a list of the different types of programs in each state and information on programs specific to bilingual educators. (See here for a glossary of terms).
Our scan yielded five main findings about the reach and scope of GYO policies
and programs across the nation:
1) Localities use the term GYO in different ways to address common problems.
New America defines Grow Your Own as partnerships between educator
preparation programs, school districts, and community organizations that recruit
and prepare local community members to enter the teaching profession and
teach in their communities. However, we did not impose this definition on the
states and localities that were included in this scan. Broadly, a range of
definitions were observed and some states did not define the term at all. For
example, Missouri’s guidance resource on GYO describes it as a strategy to “help
districts grow their own teacher pipeline...by attracting and supporting students
in their home districts to become future teachers.” Minnesota frames GYO in
terms of the program’s stated goal, which is to diversify the state’s educator
workforce. Hawaii leans on both the intended targets of GYO, noting that the
scholarship funding is for individuals working as emergency hires, substitute
teachers, or educational assistants, and the aim to address teacher shortages.
Overall, we found that GYO is being leveraged as a strategy for solving teacher
shortages and increasing the diversity of the teacher pipeline.
2) Most states have at least one GYO program, but tremendous variety exists in program design and strategy.
Only three states (ND, VT, and WY) did not have some type of GYO program.
In 47 states plus the District of Columbia we found programs for high school
students, paraeducators, community members, non-certified school staff, or
some combination. The number of program types offered varied widely, with
seven states (FL, ID, LA, NH, OH, RI, and WV) only having one type of program
and nine states (AR, CA, CO, KS, MN, MS, NY, OR, and SC) having more than
five program types. At the state level, we counted the number of GYO program
types offered and not the number of individual programs funded through those
efforts. If we were to count individual programs, Texas would be at the top, with
more than 200 programs offered. The large number of programs is attributed to
the state’s Ready, Set, Teach program for high school students. In addition, over
50 school districts have received funding to develop programs through the state’s
competitive grant program.
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The number of programs initiated at the district level outnumbers those that are
supported by state investments. The highly local nature of GYO programs is
precisely what makes them effective, but this also means there is substantial
variation across program design, reliance on partnerships, and the amount and
type of supports offered to candidates. For example, Waterloo Public Schools in
Iowa partnered with a local teacher preparation program to launch a small GYO
program for paraeducators and has structured it so that participants only work
part time and have the rest of their time covered by a different staff member. The
district does not provide tuition support but does cover the cost of the additional
staff members and participants' full-time salaries. By comparison, the STEP UP
and Teach program offered by Los Angeles Unified School District offers
paraeducators guidance on requirements and teacher preparation programs
along with tuition reimbursement and assistance covering the cost of state-
mandated licensure exams.
State-funded GYO initiatives also vary in terms of the number of pathways
offered and the level of support provided to candidates. Minnesota offers two
GYO pathways, one for paraeducators to participate in a pilot residency program
and another for high school students to enroll in education-focused courses and
earn dual credit. Texas has three pathways: one for high school students, one for
paraeducators, and one for current teacher candidates to provide them year-long
clinical teaching assignments, leveraging partnerships between school districts
and educator preparation programs. Other states such as California, Maryland,
Nevada, and New Mexico offer scholarships but lack comprehensive supports to
help candidates persist in their preparation programs.
3) More than half of states have a GYO policy, but funding for GYO programs is inconsistent.
A total of 27 states have a GYO focused policy, which we define as a statute, bill,
or executive order. These policies vary from scholarship programs designed to
help high school graduates cover the cost of an educator preparation program to
approving alternative route programs for paraeducators to having GYO listed as
one potential approach in larger grant programs designed to diversify the
educator workforce. However, in spite of having GYO policies on the books, only
18 states currently fund some type of GYO program. Of these states, seven (CA,
IL, MA, MN, NY, TX, and WA) currently fund a competitive grant program
designed to incentivize school district and educator preparation partnerships to
develop and implement GYO programs.
Looking more closely at individual states, Arizona is an outlier, as it does not
have a GYO policy but does fund a scholarship program to help paraeducators
earn a teaching degree in the area of special education. Washington State
currently funds four different GYO programs, which is more than any other state.
These programs include the Alternative Routes Block Grant, which brings
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together school districts and institutes of higher education to develop GYO
programs; Recruiting Washington Teachers, which offers high school students
courses and exposure to careers in education; Recruiting Washington Teachers
Bilingual Educators Initiative, which is a spin-off focused on producing bilingual
teachers; and the Pipeline for Paraeducators Conditional Loan Scholarship,
which provides financial assistance toward associate degrees for paraeducators
interested in becoming teachers.
4) Pathways for high school students are the most common type of GYO program.
A total of 47 states plus the District of Columbia offer at least one type of
program to expose high school students to careers in education. These programs
are primarily offered through career and technical education (CTE), which
provides students with career-related academic and technical skills. Dual
enrollment is also widely offered to provide students with the chance to earn
college credit while still enrolled in high school. Teacher Cadets (TC), a
program that began in South Carolina and has since expanded nationally, is
another common offering. That program is focused on high-achieving students
and aims to help them consider careers in teaching. It utilizes a curriculum
developed by TC and is designed as a college-level course. Educators Rising, a
national organization that exposes middle and high school students to careers in
education, is also common, with students participating in a variety of ways.
Some of their programs are linked to CTE and others serve more as interest
clubs for students. Educators Rising also offers a curriculum that can be
integrated into CTE courses and opportunities for students to earn micro-
credentials to demonstrate their growing skills and competencies.
Several states, such as Maryland, Nevada, and Oklahoma, have scholarship
programs to support high school students who want to become teachers. While
they are called scholarships, these programs come with some strings attached:
recipients must agree to teach in the state for a specified number of years and in
some cases risk having to pay the money back if they do not fulfill their service
requirements. Scholarship programs are often closely linked to shortage areas. In
Nevada, recipients of Teach Nevada Scholarships must get an endorsement in
either English as a second language or special education. A majority of state
GYO competitive grant programs include tracks for high school students. In
Texas, high school students are a primary focus of states’s GYO efforts. Consider:
its GYO grant application mandates that applicants interested in creating a GYO
pathway for paraeducators can only do so if they apply in conjunction with a
program for high school students.
Apprenticeship models are also emerging in the mix of high school educator
pathways. There are youth apprenticeship programs in at least four states (CA,
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CO, GA, and KY) that prepare students for careers in education through a mix of
high school and college coursework and paid work-based learning.
High school students are seen as an attractive pool of potential teachers who will
be invested in returning to teach in their home communities. Some studies
suggest that early recruitment of middle and high school students is a more
effective strategy than pulling from adult populations. However, even though
these pre-collegiate GYO programs have been widely adopted, there is almost no
data on their efficacy in producing teachers. GYO experts Conra Gist, Margarita
Bianco, and Marvin Lynn note in a 2019 study that often these programs lack data
“on the number of students who have completed the program, achieved state
licensure, and entered the classroom as teachers.” Some states are making
efforts to collect these data moving forward. For example, Washington State has
added a code to its Comprehensive Education Data and Research System
(CEDARS) that will allow tracking of how many alumni of the Recruiting
Washington Teachers program have enrolled in an educator preparation program
and become teachers in the state.
5) Programs for paraeducators are widely available and targeted to school and student needs.
Paraeducator pathways are offered in 34 states, with the majority being
developed at the school district level. Paraeducators are often tapped by their
building administrator to enroll in a GYO program due to their significant
instructional experience, knowledge of the district, and interest in becoming a
licensed teacher. In addition, paraeducators are more likely to match the racial
and linguistic diversity of the K–12 student population. These essential
educators are particularly suited to GYO programs geared toward developing
bilingual teachers (see Grow Your Own Programs for Bilingual Educators)
and special education teachers given that paraeducators are often utilized to
support English learners and students with disabilities.
The reach of these GYO programs for paraeducators remains limited because
they are often specific to a school district and it is unclear how many
paraeducators are served in each program. In our research, we have found that
the number of paraeducators enrolled in comprehensive GYO programs is kept
small, usually under 20. Comprehensive programs offer wraparound supports
such as financial assistance, academic advising, test preparation, and job-
embedded learning, which also constrain program size. Often programs are
designed to meet the individual needs of students. Providing one-on-one
assistance is high-touch work that requires significant staff time and capacity,
limiting the number of individuals who can be served.
Scholarship programs likely have a wider reach and may be a more efficient
strategy for producing teachers. California’s Classified School Employee Teacher
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Credentialing Program, which provided annual scholarships of $4,000 to help
paraeducators and other school staff earn an undergraduate degree and teaching
credential, reached over 2,000 participants. The program has had two rounds of
funding, the most recent offered in 2016. Of the over 900 credentialed staff who
were provided funding in the most recent round, 198 have earned a credential
and are working as teachers in the state, according to a 2019 program report.
The low rate of earned credentials could be due to the fact that participants are
working while enrolled, which limits the number of courses they can take and
lengthens the time spent in the program. More research is needed to examine the
outcomes of different types of GYO programs, including their cost and return on
investment.
The majority of programs are designed to serve paraeducators who either already
hold a bachelor’s degree or have an associate degree/60 hours of college credit.
GYO programs that are structured as partnerships with educator preparation
programs can prepare paraeducators with bachelor’s degrees in about 15 months
and in about two years for those with associate degrees. These programs are
designed to offer a structured pathway that allows participants to complete them
in a specified time frame. For example, the Chicago Public Schools bilingual
teacher residency program is structured so that paraeducators work as teacher
residents during the first year of the program and earn their teaching certification
in the process. They start their work as classroom teachers in the second year of
the program while simultaneously taking classes to earn their bilingual
endorsement.
→ GROW YOUR OWN PROGRAMS FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATORS
English learners are a growing segment of the U.S. student population and are best served in bilingual programs that support their English development and continued growth in their home language. Currently, the country is not producing enough bilingual educators to meet the needs of English learners. In 2016, 31 states and the District of Columbia reported shortages of bilingual, dual language immersion, and English as a second language teachers. GYO programs are a promising strategy for developing more
bilingual teachers due to their focus on recruiting high school students and paraeducators and their design, which provides a range of supports to
promote persistence and success in a teacher preparation program.
Our GYO policy and program scan included a special focus on programs for bilingual educators, due to our longstanding interest in how these programs can strengthen the bilingual teacher pipeline. We found GYO programs for bilingual educators in 11 states (AK, AR, CA, GA, IL, NY, OK, OR, TX, WA, and
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WI) plus DC. The majority of programs are district-level initiatives, such as the Bilingual Teacher Pipeline Project led by Oklahoma City Public Schools. Washington State stands out as the only jurisdiction to currently offer a statewide program focused on recruiting bilingual high school students into the teaching profession. California’s Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program, which was authorized once in 2017, provided funding to 10 local education agencies to prepare more bilingual teachers, including by helping paraeducators earn a teaching credential.39
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Conclusion
Our scan reveals GYO to be a widespread strategy that has been leveraged in
myriad ways in an attempt to solve teacher shortages and increase the racial and
linguistic diversity of the educator workforce. While much variation exists in
program design and delivery, states and districts are unified in the reason for
promoting and investing in GYO: the belief that recruiting and preparing teachers
from the local community will increase retention and equip schools with well-
prepared teachers who are knowledgeable about the needs of students and
families in the community.
We are facing unprecedented challenges across the nation. The COVID-19
pandemic will have a broad and lasting impact on education funding. Despite the
expansion of GYO programs and policies, budget cuts and new priorities point to
an uncertain future for this strategy. For example, in California, Governor
Newsom has proposed cutting funding for programs that help local jurisdictions
develop local teacher talent. The urgency of the current moment should not
overshadow the reality that schools need well-prepared teachers who are
committed to staying in the profession.
Now more than ever, teachers are being asked to adapt their practice, strengthen
their communication with students and families, and learn how to navigate new
teaching tools. GYO programs that facilitate partnerships between school
districts and teacher preparation programs and offer candidates comprehensive
job-embedded training offer a model for how to recruit and prepare the teachers
we need for this moment and for the future.
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Glossary
Glossary of Terms for High School Programs Glossary of Paraeducator Programs
Apprenticeship programs allow students to complete high school, start their postsecondary education at no cost, get paid work experience alongside a mentor, and start along a path that broadens their options for the future. For more see New America's Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship
Alternative Route programs provide accelerated pathways to teacher certification for individuals with a bachelor's degree. These programs can be offered by educator preparation programs at institutes of higher education, for-profit providers, and more. For more information see the ECS brief Mitigating Teacher Shortages: Alternative Teacher Certification.
Call Me MISTER recruits and supports males of color to enter the teaching profession. The program offers financial assistance, mentorship, academic support, a cohort structure and assistance with job placement.
Apprenticeships provide paid-on-the-job learning and coursework to promote career advancement. For more on apprenticeships in education see New America's report Rethinking Credential Requirements in Early Education.
Career and Technical Education programs offer a sequence of courses that provides individuals with rigorous academic content and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions.
Career Ladder models are usually offered by school districts as a way to assist paraeducators move up the career ladder and earn their teacher certification. These programs employ varying designs, but usually include financial assistance. For an example see the Career Training Program offered by New York City Public Schools.
Dual Enrollment allows students to take and earn credit for college courses while still in high school. For more information see this explainer from the US Department of Education.
Cohort models provide prospective teachers with the opportunity to matriculate through a teacher preparation with a group of peers that can provide an added layer of support. For more on cohort models see the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment report Learning Together: A Study of Six B.A. Completion Cohort Programs in ECE.
Educators Rising, is a national career and technical student organization that provides high school and middle students with exposure to careers in education. The program is linked to state/district Career and Technical Education programs but is also offered as extracurricular programs. For more see Educators Rising 2019-2020 Guide.
Community College Baccalaureate programs are four-year bachelor degree programs offered at community colleges. These programs offer a more accessible and affordable option to earning a degree. For more see New America's report Community College Baccalaureate Programs: A State Policy Framework.
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Glossary of Terms for High School Programs Glossary of Paraeducator Programs
Future Educators of America is a national organization that promotes clubs for students who are interested in becoming teachers. For more see: Florida's Future Educators of America program.
Conditional Loans are a form of financial assistance provided to help cover the cost of college tuitions. These loans come with the expectation that the recipient will teach in the district or state for a specified number of years. If the recipient fails to fulfill the specified teaching obligation, they have to pay back the loan on a prorated scale. These programs are also known as forgivable loans. For more see Washington state's conditional loan programs.
Pathway programs provide students with support along the pathway to becoming teachers by making connections between high school, community colleges, and universities. For an example see New America's profile of Skagit Valley's Supported Teacher Pathway. Some pathway programs create pathways for high school students/ college students to work as paraeducators in their school district while enrolled in a teacher preparation program. For an example see Oklahoma City Public School's Pathway to Bilingual Teaching Careers program.
A teaching micro-credential is a verification of a discrete skill or competency that a teacher has demonstrated through the submission of evidence. For more see New America's blog post Teacher Micro-credentials: State Considerations for Professional Development and License Renewal.
Scholarship programs that support high school students to pursue a degree in teaching. Many of these scholarships take the form of conditional loans, meaning that students who accept the money must commit to teaching for a specified number of years in the state or risk having to pay back a portion of the loan.
Partnership refers to GYO programs whereby school districts partner with institutes of higher education and/or community based organizations to recruit and prepare teachers from the local community. Oftentimes, these partnerships are designed to provide candidates with wraparound supports to facilitate access and persistence in a teacher preparation program.
Teacher Academy is a model that can incorporate elements of career and technical education and Dual Enrollment. For an example see Washington's Recruiting Washington Teachers program.
Scholarship refers to program that provide paraeducators with financial assistance to cover the costs of tuition. These scholarships have varying requirements and often do not cover the full cost of tuition, books, and fees. New Mexico and California offer examples of state-funded scholarship programs designed for paraeducators.
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Teacher Cadets is a national program that exposes high school students to careers in teaching through coursework, including dual enrollment. Originally started in South Carolina, the program has expanded to over 30 states.
Teacher Residency programs provide teacher candidates with the opportunity to get hands-on experience and mentorship by working in a classroom alongside a more experienced teacher before they take on responsibility for leading their own classroom. This approach to teacher preparation typically lasts for an entire school year and is paired with coursework that will result in a graduate degree in education and a teaching license. For more see the National Center for Teacher Residencies.
2+2 programs allow teacher candidates to attend a community college and then transfer to a four-year college/university. These programs help reduce the cost of higher education and increase access for non-traditional students and first-generation college students. For more information see this article in the Community College Review.
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1 Conor P. Williams, Amaya Garcia, Kaylan Connally, Shayna Cook and Kim Dancy, Multilingual Paraprofessionals: An Untapped Resource for Supporting American Pluralism (Washington, DC: New America, 2016), https:// d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net/documents/ DLLWH_ParasBrief6.1.pdf
2 Conra Gist, Margarita Bianco, and Marvin Lynn, “Examining Grow Your Own Programs Across the Teacher Development Continuum: Mining Research on Teachers of Color and Nontraditional Educator Pipelines,” Journal of Teacher Education 70, no. 1 (2019): 13–25; Kam Fui Lau, Evelyn B. Dandy, and Lorrie Hoffman, “The Pathways Program: A Model for Increasing the Number of Teachers of Color,” Teacher Education Quarterly 34, no. 3 (Fall 2007): 27–40; and Beatriz Chu Clewell and Ana María Villegas, Ahead of the Class: A Handbook for Preparing New Teachers from New Sources (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2001), https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ED454305.pdf
3 Gist, Bianco, and Lynn, “Examining Grow Your Own Programs;” and Ana María Villegas and Beatriz Chu Clewell, “Increasing Teacher Diversity by Tapping the Paraprofessional Pool,” Theory into Practice 37, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 121–130.
4 For further reading, see Michael Genzuk and Reynaldo Baca, “The Paraeducator-to-Teacher Pipeline: A 5-Year Retrospective on an Innovative Teacher Preparation Program for Latina(os),” Educati on and Urban Society 31, no. 1 (November 1998): 73– 88; Christine L. Smith, Focus on an Untapped Classroom Resource: Helping Paraprofessionals Become Teachers (Atlanta, GA: Southern Regional Education Board, April 2003); and Jorgelina Abbate- Vaughn and Patricia C. Paugh, “The Paraprofessional- to-Teacher Pipeline: Barriers and Accomplishments,” Journal of Developmental Education 33, no. 1 (Fall 2009): 14–27.
5 The DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund's Pathway to Teaching Careers Program, launched in 1989, is an exception. This $50 million national initiative aimed to address the shortage of well- prepared and certified teachers in urban and rural schools. For more about that program, see Clewell and Villegas, Ahead of the Class.
6 Elizabeth A. Skinner, “Project Nueva Generación and Grow Your Own Teachers: Transforming Schools and Teacher Education from the Inside Out,” Teacher Education Quarterly (Summer 2010): 155–167, https:// files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ902714.pdf
7 For more about statewide GYO programs see Jenny Muñiz, Investing in Grow Your Own Teacher Programs: Leveraging Statewide Competitive Grants to Promote Quality, (Washington, DC: New America, 2020), in press.
8 Kamala Harris (website), “America’s Teachers Deserve a Raise: Full Policy,” https:// kamalaharris.org/policies/teachers/full-policy/
9 Warren Democrats (website), “A Great Public School Education for Every Student,” https:// elizabethwarren.com/plans/public-education
10 College Affordability Act, H.R. 4674, 116th Cong. (2019) https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/ REINTRO_xml.pdf
11 Classrooms Reflecting Communities Act of 2019, S. 2887, 116th Cong. (November 18, 2019), https:// www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/s2887/text
12 For more on GYO program design, see New America’s Grow Your Own Educators publications page that includes several program profiles, https:// www.newamerica.org/education-policy/grow-your- own-educators/publications/
13 Alyssa Evans, Ben Erwin, Heidi Macdonald, Sarah Pompelia, Stephanie Aragon, and Zeke Perez, Jr., 50- State Comparison: Teacher Recruitment and
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Retention (Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States, 2019), https://www.ecs.org/50-state- comparison-teacher-recruitment-and-retention/
14 Damion Pechota, Tom Keily, and Zeke Perez Jr., “What Career Clusters are Recognized by the State?” 50-State Comparison: Secondary Career and Technical Education (Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States, April 2020), https:// c0arw235.caspio.com/dp/ b7f930006f4dbd5d572f423ab8cd
15 Wesley Williams II, Richard Adrien, Carrie Murthy, Darcy Pietryka, Equitable Access to Excellent Educators: An Analysis of States’ Educator Equity Plans (Rockville, MD: Westat, 2016), https:// www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/equitable/ titleiiequityanalysis1031.pdf
16 U.S. Department of Education (website), National Professional Development Program, https:// www2.ed.gov/programs/nfdp/awards.html
17 Grow Your Own! A Resource Guide to Creating Your Own Teacher Pipeline (Jefferson City: Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2016), https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/Grow- Your-Own-Resource-Guide.pdf
18 Minnesota Department of Education (website), Districts, Schools and Educators, “Grow Your Own Competitive Grant Opportunity for Pathway 1 and Pathway 2–State Funding–FY20,” https:// education.mn.gov/MDE/DSE/MDE087103
19 Department of Education, State of Hawaii, “Grow Our Own” flyer, http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/ DOE%20Forms/GrowOurOwn.pdf
20 When we refer to programs within states in this brief, we do necessarily not mean that the program is state-run or state-led. Rather, we mean that we were able to find a GYO program in that state.
21 Grow Your Own Teacher Initiatives Resources (Austin: Texas Comprehensive Center at American
Institutes for Research, 2018), 7, https://texas-cc.org/ sites/default/files/2018-02/GYO-Tchrs- Review-508.pdf#page=9
22 The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, reauthorized as Perkins V in 2018, is the federal program that supports CTE. For more about CTE in general and related state and federal policy, see Advance CTE (website), https:// cte.careertech.org/sites/default/files/ UnderstandingPerkinsV_UpdatedAugust2018.pdf
23 For more on state dual enrollment policies see Bryan Kelley and Julie Rowland Woods, 50-State Comparison: Dual/Concurrent Enrollment Policies (Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States, 2019), https://www.ecs.org/dual-concurrent- enrollment-policies/
24 Teacher Cadets (website), Research, https:// www.teachercadets.com/research.html
25 For more on Educators Rising, see its website, https://www.educatorsrising.org/what-we-offer/ overview
26 For more on micro-credentials, see Barnett Berry and P. Ann Byrd, Micro-credentials and Education Policy in the United States: Recognizing Learning and Leadership for Our Nation’s Teachers (Washington DC: Digital Promise, June 2019), https:// digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ mcs-educationpolicy.pdf
27 State of Nevada Department of Education (website), Teach Nevada Scholarships, http:// www.doe.nv.gov/Educator_Effectiveness/ Educator_Develop_Support/ Teach_Nevada_Scholarships/ #:~:text=Teach%20Nevada%20Scholarships%20are %20available,Eligible%20candidates%20include%3A &text=Students%20who%20possess%20a%20bachel or's,and%20spouses%20of%20veterans%3B%20or
28 Program Guidelines: 2020–2022 Grow Your Own Grant Program, Cycle 3 (Austin: Texas Education
newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/grow-your-own-teachers/ 21
Agency, 2019), 4, http://castro.tea.state.tx.us/ eGrants/20-21/20029137/proguide.pdf#page=7
29 For more on youth apprenticeship see, New America’s Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship resources.
30 Grow Your Own Teacher Initiatives Resources, 6.
31 Gist, Bianco, and Lynn, “Examining Grow Your Own Programs,” 20.
32 Megan Rosenberg and Stacey Sowders, Recruitin g Washington Teachers: 2018–19 Annual Report (Olympia: Washington State Professional Educator Standards Board, November 2019), https:// drive.google.com/file/d/ 16rNXPiTnef51Bq0w9VixxfRbTCiHCHpA/view
33 Williams, Garcia, Connally, Cook, and Dancy, Mu ltilingual Paraprofessionals: An Untapped Resource.
34 Amaya Garcia, “Cultivating Nebraska’s Indigenous Roots to Grow American Indian Teachers,” EdCentral (blog), New America, February 24, 2020, https://www.newamerica.org/education- policy/edcentral/indigenous-roots/
35 Report to the Legislature on the California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program, (Sacramento: Commission on Teacher Credentialing, November 2019), https:// www.ctc.ca.gov/docs/default-source/commission/ reports/classified-grant-pgm-report-2019.pdf? sfvrsn=5d4f2cb1_4
36 Amaya Garcia and Roxanne Garza, Chicago’s Bilingual Teacher Residency: A Partnership to Strengthen the Teacher Pipeline (Washington, DC: New America, 2019), https://www.newamerica.org/ education-policy/reports/chicagos-bilingual-teacher- residency-a-partnership-to-strengthen-the-teacher- pipeline/
37 U.S. Department of Education, Teacher Shortage Areas Nationwide Listing 1990–1991 through 2016–
2017 (Washington, DC: Office of Postsecondary Education, 2016), https://www2.ed.gov/about/ offices/list/ope/pol/tsa.html
38 For more, see Jorge P. Osterling and Keith Buchanan, “Tapping a Valuable Source for Prospective ESOL Teachers: Northern Virginia’s Bilingual Paraeducator Career-Ladder School– University Partnership,” Bilingual Research Journal 27, no. 3 (2003): 503–521; and Amaya Garcia, Buildin g a Bilingual Teacher Pipeline: Bilingual Teacher Fellows at Highline Public Schools (Washington, DC: New America, 2017), https://na- production.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/ FINAL_EnglishLearners_Washington.pdf
39 California Department of Education (website), BTPD Program Descriptions, https:// www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ps/btpdpgrants.asp
40 John Fensterwald, “Gov. Newsom's Revised Budget Would Partially Offset Huge Drop in Revenue for K–12 Schools, Community Colleges,” EdSource, May 14, 2020, https://edsource.org/2020/gov- newsoms-revised-budget-would-partially-offset- huge-drop-in-revenue-for-k-12-schools-community- colleges/
newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/grow-your-own-teachers/ 22
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Contents
Introduction
Method
Findings
1) Localities use the term GYO in different ways to address common problems.
2) Most states have at least one GYO program, but tremendous variety exists in program design and strategy.
3) More than half of states have a GYO policy, but funding for GYO programs is inconsistent.
4) Pathways for high school students are the most common type of GYO program.
5) Programs for paraeducators are widely available and targeted to school and student needs.
→ GROW YOUR OWN PROGRAMS FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATORS
Conclusion
Glossary
Notes
Grow Your Own Teachers A 50-State Scan of Policies and Programs
Amaya Garcia
Last edited on July 20, 2020 at 11:16 a.m. EDT
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to many current and former New America colleagues who provided research assistance and thought partnership: Ingrid T. Colón, Roxanne Garza, Itziri Gonzalez-Barcenas, Jenny Muñiz, Lindsay Rapkin, Elena Silva, and Melissa Tooley. A special thank you to the members of New America's GYO Advisory Group for their thought partnership and collaboration. I appreciate Sabrina Detlef for her editorial support and Julie Brosnan, Fabio Murgia, Riker Pasterkiewicz, and Joe Wilkes for their assistance with communication, data visualization, and layout. This work would not have been possible without the generous support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and McKnight Foundation. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these individuals and foundations.
newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/grow-your-own-teachers/ 2
About the Author(s)
Amaya Garcia is deputy director for English Learner education in the Education Policy program at New America where she provides research and analysis on policies and programs related to bilingual teacher preparation and career pathways, bilingual education, English language proficiency and early education.
About New America
We are dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create.
About Education Policy
We use original research and policy analysis to help solve the nation’s critical education problems, crafting objective analyses and suggesting new ideas for policymakers, educators, and the public at large.
About PreK-12 Education
The PreK-12 initiative works to ensure that all children attending public elementary and secondary schools have access to and receive high-quality educational experiences, with a particular emphasis on improving equity and outcomes for traditionally underserved students.
About Grow Your Own Educators
Grow Your Own (GYO) is a teacher preparation strategy focused on developing and retaining teachers from the local community. GYO is often used to address teacher shortages and increase the diversity of the teacher workforce.
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Findings
Conclusion
Glossary
Introduction
Over the past four years, New America has been researching Grow Your Own
(GYO) programs as a strategy for growing and diversifying the teacher workforce.
GYO programs—partnerships between school districts, institutions of higher
education, and community-based organizations to recruit and prepare
community members to become teachers in local schools—are increasingly
popular as a strategy for teacher recruitment and development. We began this
work with a focus on bilingual teacher development and the need for more
bilingual teachers to support the needs of English learner students.
The need for GYO is clear. States are experiencing teacher shortages across
subject areas, such as special education and bilingual education, and regions,
particularly in rural areas. Research on GYO suggests that homegrown teachers
have higher rates of retention and that these programs remove barriers that have
kept some individuals from being able to access and persist in a teacher
preparation program. At the same time, states are making efforts to increase the
racial and linguistic diversity of the teacher workforce. Students of color make up
the majority of the K–12 student population, yet their teachers are majority white,
female, and monolingual. GYO programs often focus on recruiting and preparing
teachers of color who are invested in promoting social justice and changing the
education system from within.
While GYO is not a new approach, the majority of research has focused on
district-level programs that were not widely scaled or sustained and much of the
work on program development has been done without state policy and
investment. In 2005, Illinois became the first state to fund and implement a
competitive GYO grant program designed to forge partnerships between
community organizations and institutes of higher education that would prepare
educators from the community for the community. As researcher Elizabeth
Skinner describes, the state program was born out of a grassroots effort in
Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood to help parents and community members
become bilingual teachers in their local schools. Today seven states fund
statewide GYO programs to help local school districts recruit and prepare the
teachers they need.
From its grassroots origins, GYO has recently garnered national attention as a
strategy for strengthening and diversifying the teaching profession. GYO
educator programs have been proposed by former presidential candidates
Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, with the College Affordability ACT HEA
reauthorization bill, and in the Classrooms Reflecting Communities Act of 2019
introduced by Alabama Senator Doug Jones.
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Given the expanding interest in GYO, we set out to learn more about these
programs across the country. We conducted a 50-state scan to identify GYO
programs—including target candidates, types of programs, and their design—and
to investigate state policies that support GYO program development,
implementation, and sustainability.
We found that the landscape of GYO educator pathways mirrors that of the
broader educator pathway: highly localized with wide variability in program
design. At the same time, GYO programs share a common goal of preparing
teachers from the community for the community, and they face common
challenges in designing programs that can meet candidates where they are. This
brief will highlight our findings to help uncover the current state of GYO
programs.
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We examined programs that target high school students, paraeducators, non-
certified school staff, and community members. The analysis was limited to
programs that were geared toward local candidates (e.g., high school students,
paraeducators, non-certified school staff ) who would be teaching in their local
community. However, to be as comprehensive as possible, we captured a broad
range of programs that includes career and technical education, alternative
certification, career ladders, and those that are more limited in scope (e.g.,
scholarships, student clubs).
All 50 states plus the District of Columbia were included in the scan. In the
summer of 2018, we developed a coding framework that would allow us to gauge
the policies and programs in place to support GYO. The framework was designed
based on a review of external GYO educator literature and research, New
America’s existing research on GYO educator programs, and guidance from our
GYO advisory group. The primary coding was conducted by three individuals.
We relied on Google searches using the term “[state name] grow your own
teachers,” 50-state comparisons conducted by the Education Commission of the
States on teacher retention and recruitment policies and secondary Career and
Technical Education Clusters, state plans under the Every Student Succeeds
Act (ESSA), and a Westat analysis of state teacher equity plans. Because the
development of bilingual educators has been a key focus of New America’s GYO
research, we included a focus on GYO programs for bilingual educators and so
also used the search term “[state name] grow your own bilingual teachers” and
searched through programs funded by National Professional Development grants
under Title III of ESSA. A reliability check was conducted for 30 percent of the
states. In the spring of 2020, each state’s data were reviewed and, when
necessary, updated to include new programs or to remove programs that had
lapsed.
In addition, we partnered with FDR Group to survey state Title II (e.g., teacher
recruitment and preparation) and Title III (e.g., English learners) directors about
efforts to recruit and prepare educators through GYO programs and other efforts
to prepare and support bilingual educators. We administered the survey in the
summer of 2018 and again in the spring of 2020. The first survey garnered
responses from 42 states plus the District of Columbia and the second survey
extracted responses from 46 states plus DC. The findings of the survey were used
to supplement and confirm the information that we conducted in our
independent review of GYO policies and programs.
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A Look at the Data
Our state-level data are shown in the table below. The data feature policies and programs, with a focus on those for high school students and paraeducators, as they emerged as the two most prominent kinds of programs. We include a list of the different types of programs in each state and information on programs specific to bilingual educators. (See here for a glossary of terms).
Our scan yielded five main findings about the reach and scope of GYO policies
and programs across the nation:
1) Localities use the term GYO in different ways to address common problems.
New America defines Grow Your Own as partnerships between educator
preparation programs, school districts, and community organizations that recruit
and prepare local community members to enter the teaching profession and
teach in their communities. However, we did not impose this definition on the
states and localities that were included in this scan. Broadly, a range of
definitions were observed and some states did not define the term at all. For
example, Missouri’s guidance resource on GYO describes it as a strategy to “help
districts grow their own teacher pipeline...by attracting and supporting students
in their home districts to become future teachers.” Minnesota frames GYO in
terms of the program’s stated goal, which is to diversify the state’s educator
workforce. Hawaii leans on both the intended targets of GYO, noting that the
scholarship funding is for individuals working as emergency hires, substitute
teachers, or educational assistants, and the aim to address teacher shortages.
Overall, we found that GYO is being leveraged as a strategy for solving teacher
shortages and increasing the diversity of the teacher pipeline.
2) Most states have at least one GYO program, but tremendous variety exists in program design and strategy.
Only three states (ND, VT, and WY) did not have some type of GYO program.
In 47 states plus the District of Columbia we found programs for high school
students, paraeducators, community members, non-certified school staff, or
some combination. The number of program types offered varied widely, with
seven states (FL, ID, LA, NH, OH, RI, and WV) only having one type of program
and nine states (AR, CA, CO, KS, MN, MS, NY, OR, and SC) having more than
five program types. At the state level, we counted the number of GYO program
types offered and not the number of individual programs funded through those
efforts. If we were to count individual programs, Texas would be at the top, with
more than 200 programs offered. The large number of programs is attributed to
the state’s Ready, Set, Teach program for high school students. In addition, over
50 school districts have received funding to develop programs through the state’s
competitive grant program.
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The number of programs initiated at the district level outnumbers those that are
supported by state investments. The highly local nature of GYO programs is
precisely what makes them effective, but this also means there is substantial
variation across program design, reliance on partnerships, and the amount and
type of supports offered to candidates. For example, Waterloo Public Schools in
Iowa partnered with a local teacher preparation program to launch a small GYO
program for paraeducators and has structured it so that participants only work
part time and have the rest of their time covered by a different staff member. The
district does not provide tuition support but does cover the cost of the additional
staff members and participants' full-time salaries. By comparison, the STEP UP
and Teach program offered by Los Angeles Unified School District offers
paraeducators guidance on requirements and teacher preparation programs
along with tuition reimbursement and assistance covering the cost of state-
mandated licensure exams.
State-funded GYO initiatives also vary in terms of the number of pathways
offered and the level of support provided to candidates. Minnesota offers two
GYO pathways, one for paraeducators to participate in a pilot residency program
and another for high school students to enroll in education-focused courses and
earn dual credit. Texas has three pathways: one for high school students, one for
paraeducators, and one for current teacher candidates to provide them year-long
clinical teaching assignments, leveraging partnerships between school districts
and educator preparation programs. Other states such as California, Maryland,
Nevada, and New Mexico offer scholarships but lack comprehensive supports to
help candidates persist in their preparation programs.
3) More than half of states have a GYO policy, but funding for GYO programs is inconsistent.
A total of 27 states have a GYO focused policy, which we define as a statute, bill,
or executive order. These policies vary from scholarship programs designed to
help high school graduates cover the cost of an educator preparation program to
approving alternative route programs for paraeducators to having GYO listed as
one potential approach in larger grant programs designed to diversify the
educator workforce. However, in spite of having GYO policies on the books, only
18 states currently fund some type of GYO program. Of these states, seven (CA,
IL, MA, MN, NY, TX, and WA) currently fund a competitive grant program
designed to incentivize school district and educator preparation partnerships to
develop and implement GYO programs.
Looking more closely at individual states, Arizona is an outlier, as it does not
have a GYO policy but does fund a scholarship program to help paraeducators
earn a teaching degree in the area of special education. Washington State
currently funds four different GYO programs, which is more than any other state.
These programs include the Alternative Routes Block Grant, which brings
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together school districts and institutes of higher education to develop GYO
programs; Recruiting Washington Teachers, which offers high school students
courses and exposure to careers in education; Recruiting Washington Teachers
Bilingual Educators Initiative, which is a spin-off focused on producing bilingual
teachers; and the Pipeline for Paraeducators Conditional Loan Scholarship,
which provides financial assistance toward associate degrees for paraeducators
interested in becoming teachers.
4) Pathways for high school students are the most common type of GYO program.
A total of 47 states plus the District of Columbia offer at least one type of
program to expose high school students to careers in education. These programs
are primarily offered through career and technical education (CTE), which
provides students with career-related academic and technical skills. Dual
enrollment is also widely offered to provide students with the chance to earn
college credit while still enrolled in high school. Teacher Cadets (TC), a
program that began in South Carolina and has since expanded nationally, is
another common offering. That program is focused on high-achieving students
and aims to help them consider careers in teaching. It utilizes a curriculum
developed by TC and is designed as a college-level course. Educators Rising, a
national organization that exposes middle and high school students to careers in
education, is also common, with students participating in a variety of ways.
Some of their programs are linked to CTE and others serve more as interest
clubs for students. Educators Rising also offers a curriculum that can be
integrated into CTE courses and opportunities for students to earn micro-
credentials to demonstrate their growing skills and competencies.
Several states, such as Maryland, Nevada, and Oklahoma, have scholarship
programs to support high school students who want to become teachers. While
they are called scholarships, these programs come with some strings attached:
recipients must agree to teach in the state for a specified number of years and in
some cases risk having to pay the money back if they do not fulfill their service
requirements. Scholarship programs are often closely linked to shortage areas. In
Nevada, recipients of Teach Nevada Scholarships must get an endorsement in
either English as a second language or special education. A majority of state
GYO competitive grant programs include tracks for high school students. In
Texas, high school students are a primary focus of states’s GYO efforts. Consider:
its GYO grant application mandates that applicants interested in creating a GYO
pathway for paraeducators can only do so if they apply in conjunction with a
program for high school students.
Apprenticeship models are also emerging in the mix of high school educator
pathways. There are youth apprenticeship programs in at least four states (CA,
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CO, GA, and KY) that prepare students for careers in education through a mix of
high school and college coursework and paid work-based learning.
High school students are seen as an attractive pool of potential teachers who will
be invested in returning to teach in their home communities. Some studies
suggest that early recruitment of middle and high school students is a more
effective strategy than pulling from adult populations. However, even though
these pre-collegiate GYO programs have been widely adopted, there is almost no
data on their efficacy in producing teachers. GYO experts Conra Gist, Margarita
Bianco, and Marvin Lynn note in a 2019 study that often these programs lack data
“on the number of students who have completed the program, achieved state
licensure, and entered the classroom as teachers.” Some states are making
efforts to collect these data moving forward. For example, Washington State has
added a code to its Comprehensive Education Data and Research System
(CEDARS) that will allow tracking of how many alumni of the Recruiting
Washington Teachers program have enrolled in an educator preparation program
and become teachers in the state.
5) Programs for paraeducators are widely available and targeted to school and student needs.
Paraeducator pathways are offered in 34 states, with the majority being
developed at the school district level. Paraeducators are often tapped by their
building administrator to enroll in a GYO program due to their significant
instructional experience, knowledge of the district, and interest in becoming a
licensed teacher. In addition, paraeducators are more likely to match the racial
and linguistic diversity of the K–12 student population. These essential
educators are particularly suited to GYO programs geared toward developing
bilingual teachers (see Grow Your Own Programs for Bilingual Educators)
and special education teachers given that paraeducators are often utilized to
support English learners and students with disabilities.
The reach of these GYO programs for paraeducators remains limited because
they are often specific to a school district and it is unclear how many
paraeducators are served in each program. In our research, we have found that
the number of paraeducators enrolled in comprehensive GYO programs is kept
small, usually under 20. Comprehensive programs offer wraparound supports
such as financial assistance, academic advising, test preparation, and job-
embedded learning, which also constrain program size. Often programs are
designed to meet the individual needs of students. Providing one-on-one
assistance is high-touch work that requires significant staff time and capacity,
limiting the number of individuals who can be served.
Scholarship programs likely have a wider reach and may be a more efficient
strategy for producing teachers. California’s Classified School Employee Teacher
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Credentialing Program, which provided annual scholarships of $4,000 to help
paraeducators and other school staff earn an undergraduate degree and teaching
credential, reached over 2,000 participants. The program has had two rounds of
funding, the most recent offered in 2016. Of the over 900 credentialed staff who
were provided funding in the most recent round, 198 have earned a credential
and are working as teachers in the state, according to a 2019 program report.
The low rate of earned credentials could be due to the fact that participants are
working while enrolled, which limits the number of courses they can take and
lengthens the time spent in the program. More research is needed to examine the
outcomes of different types of GYO programs, including their cost and return on
investment.
The majority of programs are designed to serve paraeducators who either already
hold a bachelor’s degree or have an associate degree/60 hours of college credit.
GYO programs that are structured as partnerships with educator preparation
programs can prepare paraeducators with bachelor’s degrees in about 15 months
and in about two years for those with associate degrees. These programs are
designed to offer a structured pathway that allows participants to complete them
in a specified time frame. For example, the Chicago Public Schools bilingual
teacher residency program is structured so that paraeducators work as teacher
residents during the first year of the program and earn their teaching certification
in the process. They start their work as classroom teachers in the second year of
the program while simultaneously taking classes to earn their bilingual
endorsement.
→ GROW YOUR OWN PROGRAMS FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATORS
English learners are a growing segment of the U.S. student population and are best served in bilingual programs that support their English development and continued growth in their home language. Currently, the country is not producing enough bilingual educators to meet the needs of English learners. In 2016, 31 states and the District of Columbia reported shortages of bilingual, dual language immersion, and English as a second language teachers. GYO programs are a promising strategy for developing more
bilingual teachers due to their focus on recruiting high school students and paraeducators and their design, which provides a range of supports to
promote persistence and success in a teacher preparation program.
Our GYO policy and program scan included a special focus on programs for bilingual educators, due to our longstanding interest in how these programs can strengthen the bilingual teacher pipeline. We found GYO programs for bilingual educators in 11 states (AK, AR, CA, GA, IL, NY, OK, OR, TX, WA, and
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WI) plus DC. The majority of programs are district-level initiatives, such as the Bilingual Teacher Pipeline Project led by Oklahoma City Public Schools. Washington State stands out as the only jurisdiction to currently offer a statewide program focused on recruiting bilingual high school students into the teaching profession. California’s Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program, which was authorized once in 2017, provided funding to 10 local education agencies to prepare more bilingual teachers, including by helping paraeducators earn a teaching credential.39
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Conclusion
Our scan reveals GYO to be a widespread strategy that has been leveraged in
myriad ways in an attempt to solve teacher shortages and increase the racial and
linguistic diversity of the educator workforce. While much variation exists in
program design and delivery, states and districts are unified in the reason for
promoting and investing in GYO: the belief that recruiting and preparing teachers
from the local community will increase retention and equip schools with well-
prepared teachers who are knowledgeable about the needs of students and
families in the community.
We are facing unprecedented challenges across the nation. The COVID-19
pandemic will have a broad and lasting impact on education funding. Despite the
expansion of GYO programs and policies, budget cuts and new priorities point to
an uncertain future for this strategy. For example, in California, Governor
Newsom has proposed cutting funding for programs that help local jurisdictions
develop local teacher talent. The urgency of the current moment should not
overshadow the reality that schools need well-prepared teachers who are
committed to staying in the profession.
Now more than ever, teachers are being asked to adapt their practice, strengthen
their communication with students and families, and learn how to navigate new
teaching tools. GYO programs that facilitate partnerships between school
districts and teacher preparation programs and offer candidates comprehensive
job-embedded training offer a model for how to recruit and prepare the teachers
we need for this moment and for the future.
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Glossary
Glossary of Terms for High School Programs Glossary of Paraeducator Programs
Apprenticeship programs allow students to complete high school, start their postsecondary education at no cost, get paid work experience alongside a mentor, and start along a path that broadens their options for the future. For more see New America's Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship
Alternative Route programs provide accelerated pathways to teacher certification for individuals with a bachelor's degree. These programs can be offered by educator preparation programs at institutes of higher education, for-profit providers, and more. For more information see the ECS brief Mitigating Teacher Shortages: Alternative Teacher Certification.
Call Me MISTER recruits and supports males of color to enter the teaching profession. The program offers financial assistance, mentorship, academic support, a cohort structure and assistance with job placement.
Apprenticeships provide paid-on-the-job learning and coursework to promote career advancement. For more on apprenticeships in education see New America's report Rethinking Credential Requirements in Early Education.
Career and Technical Education programs offer a sequence of courses that provides individuals with rigorous academic content and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions.
Career Ladder models are usually offered by school districts as a way to assist paraeducators move up the career ladder and earn their teacher certification. These programs employ varying designs, but usually include financial assistance. For an example see the Career Training Program offered by New York City Public Schools.
Dual Enrollment allows students to take and earn credit for college courses while still in high school. For more information see this explainer from the US Department of Education.
Cohort models provide prospective teachers with the opportunity to matriculate through a teacher preparation with a group of peers that can provide an added layer of support. For more on cohort models see the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment report Learning Together: A Study of Six B.A. Completion Cohort Programs in ECE.
Educators Rising, is a national career and technical student organization that provides high school and middle students with exposure to careers in education. The program is linked to state/district Career and Technical Education programs but is also offered as extracurricular programs. For more see Educators Rising 2019-2020 Guide.
Community College Baccalaureate programs are four-year bachelor degree programs offered at community colleges. These programs offer a more accessible and affordable option to earning a degree. For more see New America's report Community College Baccalaureate Programs: A State Policy Framework.
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Glossary of Terms for High School Programs Glossary of Paraeducator Programs
Future Educators of America is a national organization that promotes clubs for students who are interested in becoming teachers. For more see: Florida's Future Educators of America program.
Conditional Loans are a form of financial assistance provided to help cover the cost of college tuitions. These loans come with the expectation that the recipient will teach in the district or state for a specified number of years. If the recipient fails to fulfill the specified teaching obligation, they have to pay back the loan on a prorated scale. These programs are also known as forgivable loans. For more see Washington state's conditional loan programs.
Pathway programs provide students with support along the pathway to becoming teachers by making connections between high school, community colleges, and universities. For an example see New America's profile of Skagit Valley's Supported Teacher Pathway. Some pathway programs create pathways for high school students/ college students to work as paraeducators in their school district while enrolled in a teacher preparation program. For an example see Oklahoma City Public School's Pathway to Bilingual Teaching Careers program.
A teaching micro-credential is a verification of a discrete skill or competency that a teacher has demonstrated through the submission of evidence. For more see New America's blog post Teacher Micro-credentials: State Considerations for Professional Development and License Renewal.
Scholarship programs that support high school students to pursue a degree in teaching. Many of these scholarships take the form of conditional loans, meaning that students who accept the money must commit to teaching for a specified number of years in the state or risk having to pay back a portion of the loan.
Partnership refers to GYO programs whereby school districts partner with institutes of higher education and/or community based organizations to recruit and prepare teachers from the local community. Oftentimes, these partnerships are designed to provide candidates with wraparound supports to facilitate access and persistence in a teacher preparation program.
Teacher Academy is a model that can incorporate elements of career and technical education and Dual Enrollment. For an example see Washington's Recruiting Washington Teachers program.
Scholarship refers to program that provide paraeducators with financial assistance to cover the costs of tuition. These scholarships have varying requirements and often do not cover the full cost of tuition, books, and fees. New Mexico and California offer examples of state-funded scholarship programs designed for paraeducators.
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Teacher Cadets is a national program that exposes high school students to careers in teaching through coursework, including dual enrollment. Originally started in South Carolina, the program has expanded to over 30 states.
Teacher Residency programs provide teacher candidates with the opportunity to get hands-on experience and mentorship by working in a classroom alongside a more experienced teacher before they take on responsibility for leading their own classroom. This approach to teacher preparation typically lasts for an entire school year and is paired with coursework that will result in a graduate degree in education and a teaching license. For more see the National Center for Teacher Residencies.
2+2 programs allow teacher candidates to attend a community college and then transfer to a four-year college/university. These programs help reduce the cost of higher education and increase access for non-traditional students and first-generation college students. For more information see this article in the Community College Review.
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1 Conor P. Williams, Amaya Garcia, Kaylan Connally, Shayna Cook and Kim Dancy, Multilingual Paraprofessionals: An Untapped Resource for Supporting American Pluralism (Washington, DC: New America, 2016), https:// d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net/documents/ DLLWH_ParasBrief6.1.pdf
2 Conra Gist, Margarita Bianco, and Marvin Lynn, “Examining Grow Your Own Programs Across the Teacher Development Continuum: Mining Research on Teachers of Color and Nontraditional Educator Pipelines,” Journal of Teacher Education 70, no. 1 (2019): 13–25; Kam Fui Lau, Evelyn B. Dandy, and Lorrie Hoffman, “The Pathways Program: A Model for Increasing the Number of Teachers of Color,” Teacher Education Quarterly 34, no. 3 (Fall 2007): 27–40; and Beatriz Chu Clewell and Ana María Villegas, Ahead of the Class: A Handbook for Preparing New Teachers from New Sources (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2001), https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ED454305.pdf
3 Gist, Bianco, and Lynn, “Examining Grow Your Own Programs;” and Ana María Villegas and Beatriz Chu Clewell, “Increasing Teacher Diversity by Tapping the Paraprofessional Pool,” Theory into Practice 37, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 121–130.
4 For further reading, see Michael Genzuk and Reynaldo Baca, “The Paraeducator-to-Teacher Pipeline: A 5-Year Retrospective on an Innovative Teacher Preparation Program for Latina(os),” Educati on and Urban Society 31, no. 1 (November 1998): 73– 88; Christine L. Smith, Focus on an Untapped Classroom Resource: Helping Paraprofessionals Become Teachers (Atlanta, GA: Southern Regional Education Board, April 2003); and Jorgelina Abbate- Vaughn and Patricia C. Paugh, “The Paraprofessional- to-Teacher Pipeline: Barriers and Accomplishments,” Journal of Developmental Education 33, no. 1 (Fall 2009): 14–27.
5 The DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund's Pathway to Teaching Careers Program, launched in 1989, is an exception. This $50 million national initiative aimed to address the shortage of well- prepared and certified teachers in urban and rural schools. For more about that program, see Clewell and Villegas, Ahead of the Class.
6 Elizabeth A. Skinner, “Project Nueva Generación and Grow Your Own Teachers: Transforming Schools and Teacher Education from the Inside Out,” Teacher Education Quarterly (Summer 2010): 155–167, https:// files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ902714.pdf
7 For more about statewide GYO programs see Jenny Muñiz, Investing in Grow Your Own Teacher Programs: Leveraging Statewide Competitive Grants to Promote Quality, (Washington, DC: New America, 2020), in press.
8 Kamala Harris (website), “America’s Teachers Deserve a Raise: Full Policy,” https:// kamalaharris.org/policies/teachers/full-policy/
9 Warren Democrats (website), “A Great Public School Education for Every Student,” https:// elizabethwarren.com/plans/public-education
10 College Affordability Act, H.R. 4674, 116th Cong. (2019) https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/ REINTRO_xml.pdf
11 Classrooms Reflecting Communities Act of 2019, S. 2887, 116th Cong. (November 18, 2019), https:// www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/s2887/text
12 For more on GYO program design, see New America’s Grow Your Own Educators publications page that includes several program profiles, https:// www.newamerica.org/education-policy/grow-your- own-educators/publications/
13 Alyssa Evans, Ben Erwin, Heidi Macdonald, Sarah Pompelia, Stephanie Aragon, and Zeke Perez, Jr., 50- State Comparison: Teacher Recruitment and
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Retention (Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States, 2019), https://www.ecs.org/50-state- comparison-teacher-recruitment-and-retention/
14 Damion Pechota, Tom Keily, and Zeke Perez Jr., “What Career Clusters are Recognized by the State?” 50-State Comparison: Secondary Career and Technical Education (Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States, April 2020), https:// c0arw235.caspio.com/dp/ b7f930006f4dbd5d572f423ab8cd
15 Wesley Williams II, Richard Adrien, Carrie Murthy, Darcy Pietryka, Equitable Access to Excellent Educators: An Analysis of States’ Educator Equity Plans (Rockville, MD: Westat, 2016), https:// www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/equitable/ titleiiequityanalysis1031.pdf
16 U.S. Department of Education (website), National Professional Development Program, https:// www2.ed.gov/programs/nfdp/awards.html
17 Grow Your Own! A Resource Guide to Creating Your Own Teacher Pipeline (Jefferson City: Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2016), https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/Grow- Your-Own-Resource-Guide.pdf
18 Minnesota Department of Education (website), Districts, Schools and Educators, “Grow Your Own Competitive Grant Opportunity for Pathway 1 and Pathway 2–State Funding–FY20,” https:// education.mn.gov/MDE/DSE/MDE087103
19 Department of Education, State of Hawaii, “Grow Our Own” flyer, http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/ DOE%20Forms/GrowOurOwn.pdf
20 When we refer to programs within states in this brief, we do necessarily not mean that the program is state-run or state-led. Rather, we mean that we were able to find a GYO program in that state.
21 Grow Your Own Teacher Initiatives Resources (Austin: Texas Comprehensive Center at American
Institutes for Research, 2018), 7, https://texas-cc.org/ sites/default/files/2018-02/GYO-Tchrs- Review-508.pdf#page=9
22 The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, reauthorized as Perkins V in 2018, is the federal program that supports CTE. For more about CTE in general and related state and federal policy, see Advance CTE (website), https:// cte.careertech.org/sites/default/files/ UnderstandingPerkinsV_UpdatedAugust2018.pdf
23 For more on state dual enrollment policies see Bryan Kelley and Julie Rowland Woods, 50-State Comparison: Dual/Concurrent Enrollment Policies (Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States, 2019), https://www.ecs.org/dual-concurrent- enrollment-policies/
24 Teacher Cadets (website), Research, https:// www.teachercadets.com/research.html
25 For more on Educators Rising, see its website, https://www.educatorsrising.org/what-we-offer/ overview
26 For more on micro-credentials, see Barnett Berry and P. Ann Byrd, Micro-credentials and Education Policy in the United States: Recognizing Learning and Leadership for Our Nation’s Teachers (Washington DC: Digital Promise, June 2019), https:// digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ mcs-educationpolicy.pdf
27 State of Nevada Department of Education (website), Teach Nevada Scholarships, http:// www.doe.nv.gov/Educator_Effectiveness/ Educator_Develop_Support/ Teach_Nevada_Scholarships/ #:~:text=Teach%20Nevada%20Scholarships%20are %20available,Eligible%20candidates%20include%3A &text=Students%20who%20possess%20a%20bachel or's,and%20spouses%20of%20veterans%3B%20or
28 Program Guidelines: 2020–2022 Grow Your Own Grant Program, Cycle 3 (Austin: Texas Education
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Agency, 2019), 4, http://castro.tea.state.tx.us/ eGrants/20-21/20029137/proguide.pdf#page=7
29 For more on youth apprenticeship see, New America’s Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship resources.
30 Grow Your Own Teacher Initiatives Resources, 6.
31 Gist, Bianco, and Lynn, “Examining Grow Your Own Programs,” 20.
32 Megan Rosenberg and Stacey Sowders, Recruitin g Washington Teachers: 2018–19 Annual Report (Olympia: Washington State Professional Educator Standards Board, November 2019), https:// drive.google.com/file/d/ 16rNXPiTnef51Bq0w9VixxfRbTCiHCHpA/view
33 Williams, Garcia, Connally, Cook, and Dancy, Mu ltilingual Paraprofessionals: An Untapped Resource.
34 Amaya Garcia, “Cultivating Nebraska’s Indigenous Roots to Grow American Indian Teachers,” EdCentral (blog), New America, February 24, 2020, https://www.newamerica.org/education- policy/edcentral/indigenous-roots/
35 Report to the Legislature on the California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program, (Sacramento: Commission on Teacher Credentialing, November 2019), https:// www.ctc.ca.gov/docs/default-source/commission/ reports/classified-grant-pgm-report-2019.pdf? sfvrsn=5d4f2cb1_4
36 Amaya Garcia and Roxanne Garza, Chicago’s Bilingual Teacher Residency: A Partnership to Strengthen the Teacher Pipeline (Washington, DC: New America, 2019), https://www.newamerica.org/ education-policy/reports/chicagos-bilingual-teacher- residency-a-partnership-to-strengthen-the-teacher- pipeline/
37 U.S. Department of Education, Teacher Shortage Areas Nationwide Listing 1990–1991 through 2016–
2017 (Washington, DC: Office of Postsecondary Education, 2016), https://www2.ed.gov/about/ offices/list/ope/pol/tsa.html
38 For more, see Jorge P. Osterling and Keith Buchanan, “Tapping a Valuable Source for Prospective ESOL Teachers: Northern Virginia’s Bilingual Paraeducator Career-Ladder School– University Partnership,” Bilingual Research Journal 27, no. 3 (2003): 503–521; and Amaya Garcia, Buildin g a Bilingual Teacher Pipeline: Bilingual Teacher Fellows at Highline Public Schools (Washington, DC: New America, 2017), https://na- production.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/ FINAL_EnglishLearners_Washington.pdf
39 California Department of Education (website), BTPD Program Descriptions, https:// www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ps/btpdpgrants.asp
40 John Fensterwald, “Gov. Newsom's Revised Budget Would Partially Offset Huge Drop in Revenue for K–12 Schools, Community Colleges,” EdSource, May 14, 2020, https://edsource.org/2020/gov- newsoms-revised-budget-would-partially-offset- huge-drop-in-revenue-for-k-12-schools-community- colleges/
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Contents
Introduction
Method
Findings
1) Localities use the term GYO in different ways to address common problems.
2) Most states have at least one GYO program, but tremendous variety exists in program design and strategy.
3) More than half of states have a GYO policy, but funding for GYO programs is inconsistent.
4) Pathways for high school students are the most common type of GYO program.
5) Programs for paraeducators are widely available and targeted to school and student needs.
→ GROW YOUR OWN PROGRAMS FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATORS
Conclusion
Glossary
Notes